I haven’t undertaken an in-depth look at the replay of the game yet – last night, all I had time to do was skim some of the highlights to see what I had missed from Section 103 – but one thing I’m puzzled about was Gary Danielson’s continued insistence on getting the ball to A.J. Green. It was apparent from where I was sitting that Florida rolled its pass coverage frequently towards A.J., which had the benefit of opening up the field for Georgia’s other receivers. It was no coincidence that Orson Charles had by far his best game of the season Saturday.

CBS’ camera coverage wasn’t the world’s greatest, but you can clearly see the attention Green was getting on the 24-yard completion to Charles on the play before he scored.

On the other hand, Danielson did a very nice job breaking down Murray’s best throw of the day, the TD pass to A.J.

I suppose that if you could have counted on Aaron to make that kind of throw every time, then Danielson’s observation would make more sense. Unfortunately, as the pick in overtime showed, that wasn’t the case.

The pass protection was terrible on that play. The left side of the line didn’t pick up the stunt and the rush threw Murray’s timing off. But there wasn’t exactly a lot of space in which to throw the ball to A.J., either.

I still don’t think Murray gets enough praise for his blowing up that run back. He didn’t wiff. He saved the TD. That effort will pay great dividends for a team that has lost 5 games by a ONLY 35 points total, next year.

The pass completion to AJ was made in a very small window. That was a gutsy, accurate throw and a great catch, as the Fllorida coverage was very good. It was an over/under coverage and forced Murray to put just enough loft on the ball to get it over the LB head, but not too much. A QB does not get that kind of throw and catch with that kind of coveage very often, as was seen in the OT play.

I had mentioned before, Florida coaches well know UGA’s (and Bobo’s) tendency to throw over the middle. I am going to guess that most of Florida’s picks against a Bobo led Georgia offense have been over the middle.

They really read the routes and jump them. I think we should be using more pump fakes. Their secondary is always extremely aggressive in route-jumping, and it has really worked against us since Meyer is coach. How many INTs do we have against them? Even in ’07 Stafford had two, right? It’s about in the last four games.

While I agree with you that double moves and pump fakes would be extremely effective, you can’t run them without time. Florida, or any secondary, can jump routes because they know their pass rush is going to get home before a double move has time to beat them. They blitzed all day and consistently pressured Murray.

I don’t know how they let those guys through like that. There was no space on AJ, yeah, but a throw Murray can step into, instead of throwing off his back foot, does not sail on him and is a dart at AJ’s knees where only he can get it.

Terrible time for a mix up on a blocking assignment. Richt did say that Orson ran to deep in his route which caused too much traffic in the middle. It was Orson’s guy that got the tip on the pass. It would’ve been interesting to see if AJ would have had a play on the ball had the pass made it through cleanly.
But the truth of the matter is when you have the ball first in OT, you HAVE to get points. My head tells me Murray should have taken the sack and kick a FG, but my heart says when you have AJ you have to give him a chance to make a play. Ugh.

Looking at it closely, you can see that if Murray had held the ball a second longer OR if Orson had broken his route and turned a yard shorter the LB would have had to go with Orson. But as it was the LB could leave Orson because the ball was in the air while he was still close enough to midfield to get a hand on it.

Two unforced errors–on the line, Sturdivant whiffing on his guy and King going out too soon, and Charles running a yard too deep–result in a game-deciding INT.

You can say it’s execution, and it is, but it is also someone’s job to make sure players execute. This kind of crap has doomed us against UF for years….can’t take it anymore.

Watching the last drive was depressing to say the least. On first down Durham literally makes no effort to make a play on the ball and was lucky it wasn’t picked. On second down caleb was inches from breaking a big play. UF ran a blitz into the right side and we went left and it was just wide open. Unfortunately one of the blitzers made a good play and got Caleb before he got into the huge hole.
As for third down, sturdivant just got whipped. That was a 3 man rush. 3 vs 5 and Murray was pressured. Pretty pathetic. Also it looked like Charles ran a very bad route which allowed the man covering him to come off and get a tip on the ball. 3 good play calls in that last drive. The exucution on 1st and 3rd was awful.

Also…that route can’t possibly be supposed to be run like that, where AJ and Orson manage to get an LB in position to defend both of them. If AJ was supposed to cut closer to the 15, Orson’s LB is caught behind the DB chasing AJ and cannot move quickly enough to step in front of the pass.

I’m glad you’ve noted this. At one point Saturday Danielson said something like “I wish I could say they’re doing something special, rolling coverage onto AJ, but they’re not.” That struck me as unlike Urban Meyer, but it was difficult to tell from the camera angles.

What was not difficult to tell was that, as good a job as AJ did holding onto that touchdown pass, the announcers fixated on his effort instead of saying “That was an NFL throw.”

Aaron Murray threw that ball at a linebacker’s head. It was perfect. Now, if that guy turns around maybe its not so perfect, but that’s what they do in the NFL: Throw to guys who aren’t open, because they have to.

I was hoping to get AJ the ball more as well; but does anyone realize who was covering him most of the game? AM was snakebit on the first pass of the game to AJ. Janoris Jenkins will play on Sundays. AM might have been just a little bit reluctant to throw it AJ’s way with Jenkins and others on him. That did open it up to Charles and others.

Bloviation for the Dawgnation

Quote Of The Day

“It brings back a great Bulldog running back in Thomas who has NFL playing experience and has had success as a college coach at multiple schools. He also inherits a position that has been built to an elite level by Bryan. And it gives Bryan the opportunity to return to coaching the position he played and the one where he cut his teeth serving as a graduate assistant under wide receiver coach John Eason here at UGA. It also provides him with a new experience as a passing game coordinator.” -- Mark Richt, AB-H, 2/16/15